Friday, July 25, 2008

I have just finished my first 'seriously spun' art yarn. Others that I have played with have been spun up quickly - one skein kinks up so horribly it's almost not worth doing anything with. The stuff I have just finished I took lots of care and time to do it correctly. Its a core-spun with coils, a few super coils, and seed beads placed randomly throughout. I took the core yarn and put it on a drop spindle so I could let it dangle and spin itself out/unply as I spun the artsy single onto it. The seed beads were threaded onto invisible nylon quilter's thread and carried along with the single. I had to stop each time I reached the drop spindle to release more core yarn - this is what took up most of the time it took to work the entire single onto the core.This is the batt used for the single. A spontaneous spinning batt from Loop! on Etsy. It was created with inspiration from the purple passion butterfly and was my very first batt from Loop's SSB Club.I'll add a photo of the FO as soon as I have one. I need to soak it to set the twist and let it dry.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

This man has made me an electric spinner and what a great piece of equipment! I was able to ply two full bobbins of yarn together yesterday in just over an hour. Last evening I decided to try some 'art yarn' with it and with the variable rate foot pedal it went just perfectly! The single is done, I've strung massive amounts of seed beads, and will set up a spindle with a core thread today. Then I'm going to coil and beehive the single and try coiling little groups of seed beads throughout it. The single was made from a Spontaneous Spinning batt from Loop! on Etsy. It's quite dark as far as colors go, with bits of glitz, tencel and shiny bamboo fiber. I'm expecting the July batt from her soon and have purchased her "Kimono" blend which is a riot of reds. I expect it to show up in today's mail.

I found a test knitter via the Rav boards to knit up the BT cap for me. I have her doing this to be sure that the yarn amounts will be correct for a kit I intend to make up for the cap to offer for sale. She's quick with knitting and has tried various needle sizes to get the correct gauge - of course I made a really stupid mistake and sent her bulky yarn. I'm going to send her new yarn out today - both acrylic and wool.

I have a ton of batts that I need to photograph today and get listed for sale. I have some art yarns, too, that I'd like to put up. Maybe even include this new stuff that might make it off of the wheel later today. ;-)

Boomers and heavy rain since late yesterday afternoon. We had a few leaks from the attic due to the wind driven rain that made it through the attic vents. Nothing serious, thank goodness. I'm hearing thunder outside again now -- we're under a flash flood warning considering the weather folks say we've had over 5 inches of rain since last evening.

So it's been awhile since I last posted. The past month has been rough - health wise. Food poisoning on the 27th of June lasting 4 solid days really kicked my ass. I still haven't fully recovered. I missed Andrea's high school graduation and that just about broke my heart. And Miss Thing has taken advantage of my continuing weakness and fatigue by slipping out of the house (leaving notes) while I'm sleeping so I can't object or ask where she's going and when she'll be home. Last week she took the car and spent two days at a friends house, went to a damn party at another home and had her laptop, my digital camera and some cash stolen from her at the party. Nice friends, huh? Of course that now means that she monopolizes my computer every chance she gets.

We set new rules for the car - no more overnight trips. Car is to be in the driveway by 9pm every night, no matter what. No bullshit - no excuses. Today she's going to spend a few days with friends and we have to chauffeur her 20+ miles down river so her friend can pick her up.

Six months since we've heard from "E". I'm still floored at the accusations he made against us. How he could even think we'd try to use his so called *credit* is beyond me. Stupid, stupid kid. He'll come skulking back around Xmas time when he thinks he'll be getting the usual cash gift from us. Guess what? Ain't gonna happen!